Making the Jobless Rate a Moving Target

Some football teams have no trouble marching down the field but sputter once they reach the red zone.

In the 12 months through this past September, the U.S. economy saw unemployment fall each month by a 10th of a percentage point on average per month. If economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires are right about Friday's government report, February's rate will have only dropped back to the same 7.8% seen in September.